British carmaker Bentley has been practicing the art of
expensive subtlety since well before the recession, launching
the Continental GT in 2003 for $150,000.

No flashy Ferrari this: The big-boned coupe doesn’t say
Bentley anywhere on the outside -- aficionados will recognize
the double-winged “B” badge, while others could mistake it for
a $30,000, first-generation Chrysler 300.

The Chrysler had a similar upright grill, but isn’t
available with Bentley options like a $7,000 stereo system or a
$550 removable hard case for storing keys.

Bentley has followed up the base GT with ever more
expensive “Speed” and “Supersports” versions, not bothering
to brand them either. Pay an extra $17,000 to $77,000 without
obvious bragging rights.

Even modern classics must be remade, and so the Louboutin-heeled get an all-new 2012 model which looks amazingly like the
old. Starting at $189,900, it takes a practiced eye, or a
Bentley dealer, to tell the difference.

The Continental has always left me cold. Cramped inside
considering the sizable girth, it’s a heavyweight. I also prefer
a bit more pizazz for my hundreds of thousands.

Botox

Yet several days driving the 2012 model left me liking
everything more. In most every way, the Bentley is better.

The exterior has been gently re-sculpted with a little nip,
a little tuck. It’s as if sagging lines were crisped by metal-firming Botox. Without an older model alongside for comparison,
I couldn’t tell the exact differences, yet slight wrongs were
righted.

My $211,640 test car came in “Thunder” -- an interesting
gray -- with 21-inch wheels. The interior was camel-colored,
with walnut veneers covering most surfaces that weren’t stitched
leather.

A hide-covered ledge juts out beyond the dash, framing the
driver and cascading to the center console. There’s a new
navigation and infotainment system, but we’ll come back to that.
Bentley’s interiors have always been a major selling point, but
this one was superlative. It still isn’t as expansive inside as
you might hope, but it is a luxurious perch.

It drives better as well. It’s hard to truly call the
Continental a sports car. Even the Speed versions felt heavy
and bulky. With lots of horsepower, they were better suited to
hard blasts of acceleration than high-speed cornering.

No Bull

But last year Bentley released the 620-hp Supersports,
which drives like the devil is chasing it. The suspension and
all-wheel-drive system was tweaked just so: Now, it blasts
around curves.

That finesse has filtered down. Because now when you slap
the GT’s accelerator, the engine makes a delicious roar and the
car stands on its tippy toes. Take a challenging line on a
curving road and this GT will set to it, following that first
command of the wheel rather than hedging its bets by asking you
to seesaw the wheel to account for clumsy weight.

As before, the suspension can be dialed from normal to
sport, going from lily-pad soft to moderately hard, though it
never approaches spine-rattling. It’s a grand touring car, after
all.

So, more sports car, less bull in the china closet. Drivers
should still remember to brake early into corners -- there’s no
help for the 5,100-plus pounds. But the brakes are superb and
the whole car feels more self aware. The steering is firm and
likes a slow hand.

Lost in Jersey

The car is all-wheel-drive and power comes from a large
6.0-liter W-12. This one delivers 567 horses and an impressive
516 pound-feet of torque. A 4.0-liter V-8 will also become
available and should help with sorry gas mileage.

Even the ridiculous behind-the-wheel paddles, which I’ve
previously compared to Dumbo’s ears for their odd placement and
shape, have diminished in size. I’m guessing the average Bentley
driver ignored them anyhow.

Which brings us to the navigation system -- a pain point
for any person who’s ever driven a modern Bentley. They are
owned by the Volkswagen Group, so I’ve always wondered why they
didn’t simply source one from Audi, just as once electronically-challenged Lamborghini has done?

To give you an example: Not so long ago, the navigation in
a $308,870, flashy red Continental Supersports convertible led
us straight to the dodgiest neighborhood in New Jersey it could
find, ostensibly on the way to Pennsylvania -- then kind of
shrugged and gave up.

The new GT has an 8-inch touchscreen that uses Google Maps
and has a 30-gigabyte hard drive. While it still isn’t better
than your average Honda system, I’ll wager it can find the state
of Pennsylvania.

Leave it to Bentley to do a redesign this subtle. To be
confident that the new car is exactly what customers were
already looking for: More of the same, only better.

The 2012 Bentley Continental GT At a Glance

Engine: 6.0-liter, twin-turbo W-12 with 567 horsepower and

516 pound-feet of torque.

Transmission: ZF 6-speed automatic.

Speed: 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds.

Gas mileage per gallon: 12 city; 19 highway.

Price as tested: $211,640.

Best features: Better looking, better driving.

Worst features: Interior still feels small for size of the

car. Miserable mpg.

Target buyer: Luxury lover who prefers to cruise under the

radar.

(Jason H. Harper writes about autos for Muse, the arts and
leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are
his own.)

To contact the writer of this column:
Jason H. Harper at Jason@JasonHharper.com or follow on Twitter
@JasonHarperSpin.